Teaching spaces of possibility: Cultivating safe, relaxed, and challenging classrooms

Abstract

Outlining how I cultivate safe, relaxed and challenging classrooms, I offer some creative and challenging teaching strategies from my gender and sexuality courses. I emphasize teaching spaces of possibility by describing and offering examples of teaching tools I’ve utilized in my classes. Teaching spaces of possibility are moments where a seemingly constraining interaction (such as students resisting a discussion about homophobia) can become teachable moments in which students actually learn something about their own biases and belief systems whilst in a moment of resistance. While teaching spaces of possibility enable me to do a lot of different things with my classroom, these spaces help me navigate student emotions and manage student resistance with more grace and ease that I might otherwise have access to. Finally, I end the paper by reflecting on my teaching tools and discussions for future dialogue.